SRC recommends Sh80b salary increase for civil servants

Salaries and Remuneration Commission Chair Sarah Serem, before Parliamentary Labour and Social Welfare Committee in NairobiPHOTO DAVID NJAAGA/STANDARD}

Civil servants will be awarded Sh80 billion in additional salaries over a four-year period starting July.

This is in new recommendations sent by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission to President Uhuru Kenyatta.

SRC told the President the funds would be used to harmonise salaries as per the findings of the ongoing job evaluation.

The proposed pay is separate from the Sh100 billion that has already been factored into the national budget for the next financial year.

Of concern to the average citizen is how the State plans to raise the funds for the additional salaries, a point in time when existing taxes have already raised the cost of living.

“Implementation of job evaluation results for the public service will lead to an additional Sh20 billion per year being spent over the next four years, to review the remuneration of public servants,” SRC told the President before his State of the National address two weeks ago.

Awarding the Government workers the twin salary increment is expected to complicate an already wide pay gap compared with the stunted incomes in the private sector.

State House spokesman, Manoah Esipisu, announced that the Cabinet had agreed to allocate Sh100 billion for civil servants’ pay in the national budget that was unveiled last week.

“The proposed 2017-18 budget estimates provide allocation of Sh100 billion for salary increases for all public servants starting July 2017,” Mr Esipisu said following the last Cabinet meeting in early February.

The allocation would see public workers benefit from the new SRC grading structure, a move geared towards making the civil service more attractive unlike in the previous structure where many got stuck and promotions were dished out based on nepotism, tribalism and less on the qualifications of the job holders.

The proposed and budgeted allocations will raise the wage bill that currently stands at a high of Sh627 billion.